Get in touch

Questions, bugs or ideas? We’re happy to help, and usually reply within a couple of days.

Email Support

Frequently asked questions

What do I need?

AirPods or Beats that follow your head (Spatial Audio with head tracking), for example AirPods Pro, AirPods (3rd generation and later) or AirPods Max. Without them, hold the iPhone or iPad flat against your chest and turn your whole body: the device’s own motion sensors stand in for your head. Sit down before you begin, and never play while walking, cycling or driving.

How do I play?

Eurydice: she walks behind you out of the underworld. Keep facing the light ahead. A glance to the side is forgiven; turn to look over your shoulder and she is gone.

The King in the Snow: Kay Khosrow walks ahead into the mountains, speaking his last counsel. Hold anywhere on the screen to walk after him. Listen for the signs of the storm, and when it is time, turn round all the way, find the fires behind you, and walk home. Too early and you carry nothing home; too late and the snow keeps you.

The lamp at Tus: after the King’s last walk you sit with Ferdowsi, on the winter night he finished the Shahnameh. He tells you who the King was and why he went, reads his own couplets, and writes in the sayings you carried home. When he asks, turn round to the window, and back to the lamp; hold the screen to keep the page down while he writes. There is nothing to lose.

The first time you open each walk there is a short voiced practice. You can replay it any time from How to play on the home screen or in Settings.

The sounds turn with my head. What’s wrong?

Check that your AirPods are in and connected, and that Shade & Snow is allowed Motion & Fitness in Settings → Privacy & Security → Motion & Fitness. Then sit the way you will play, face forward, and tap Recenter (the arrow at the bottom right of a walk, or in Settings).

Why did the walk pause?

A walk holds its place if you stand up and start walking, if a call or Siri takes the audio, or if your AirPods come out. Sit down, or put them back in, and it carries on.

Can I play lying down?

Yes. Turn on Lying down (sleep mode) on the home screen. Before each walk you lie still facing the ceiling, then turn your head to the right on the pillow as far as is comfortable and back; from then on a turn of your head on the pillow counts as a whole turn. The King’s walk moves on its own, and the screen goes black (tap it to see the controls) — or keep the walk on screen by turning off Dark screen while lying down in Settings. Sleep mode needs AirPods that follow your head.

Can I play with VoiceOver?

Yes. The game is played by listening, and every screen works with VoiceOver. With VoiceOver on, the King’s walk moves on its own and the page at the lamp holds itself, so there is nothing to hold. During a walk, a two-finger scrub asks to stop, and a two-finger double-tap tells you where you are. Walk on its own in Settings gives anyone the same.

Can I answer by voice?

Yes. When a walk ends, the narrator asks “Say walk on, or home” (after a loss, “try again, or home”) and listens for about ten seconds through your device’s microphone. Just say it — the buttons stay on screen too. The first time, your iPhone or iPad asks for the Microphone and Speech Recognition; recognition runs on your device, and nothing is recorded or sent. It never asks in sleep mode, so nothing wakes you. Turn it off in Settings → Answer by voice.

Can I walk a chapter again?

After a walk, Walk on goes to the next chapter and Try again repeats the one you lost. Once you have sat with Ferdowsi, the King’s card takes you back to each walk whose sayings are still in the snow.

Does Shade & Snow collect my data?

No. There are no accounts, no analytics and no tracking, and the app never goes online. Your log and the sayings you keep stay on your device. See our Privacy Policy.

Where do the stories come from?

Eurydice follows Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book X) and Virgil’s Georgics (Book IV). The King in the Snow follows the departure of Kay Khosrow in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. All three are in the public domain. The English is original prose written in their spirit; in the last chapter Ferdowsi is a character, and only the Persian he reads is his. The Persian couplets are Ferdowsi’s own, taken word for word from ganjoor.net. Voices and sounds were made with ElevenLabs; the King speaks, in English and Persian, in a clone of the developer’s own voice.